Sol Berkowitz (27 April 1922 – 29 July 2006) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

music educator Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

Life

Sol Berkowitz was born in

Warren, Ohio Warren is a city in Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 39,201 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along the Mahoning River, Warren lies approximately northwest of Youngstown, Ohio, Y ...

, and lived in New York from 1925. He received music degrees from Queens College (CUNY) in 1942 and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1946. He studied piano with Abby Whiteside and

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

with Karol Rathaus, Harold Morris and Otto Luening. Berkowitz was a professor at

Aaron Copland School of Music The Aaron Copland School of Music is one of the oldest departments at Queens College at the City University of New York, founded when the College opened in 1937. The department's curriculum was originally established by Edwin Stringham, and a la ...

at Queens College from 1946 until 1999, with a brief hiatus (1961–1967) to pursue a career as a theatre, film and television composer. Known as a teacher of

music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

ear training In music, ear training is the study and practice in which musicians learn various aural skills to detect and identify pitch (music), pitches, interval (music), intervals, melody (music), melody, chord (music), chords, rhythms, solfeges, and other ...

and musicianship, Berkowitz wrote the music textbooks ''A New Approach to Sight Singing'' and ''Improvisation through Keyboard Harmony''. Berkowitz composed musicals, ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, and hundreds of choral works and songs. His musical score '' Nowhere to Go But Up!'' was produced on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

in 1962. Among Berkowitz's students are jazz pianist

Mal Waldron Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Wa ...

, jazz guitarist

Billy Bauer William Henry Bauer (November 14, 1915 – June 17, 2005) was an American jazz guitarist. Life William Henry Bauer was born in New York City. He played ukulele and banjo as a child before switching to guitar. He played with the Jerry Wald ban ...

, musicologist

Lewis Lockwood Lewis H. Lockwood (born December 16, 1930) is an American musicologist whose main fields are the music of the Italian Renaissance and the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven. Joseph Kerman described him as "a leading musical scholar of the postw ...

and composer

Bright Sheng Bright Sheng (; born December 6, 1955) is a Chinese-born American composer, pianist and conductor. Sheng has earned many honors for his music and compositions, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001; he also was a two-time Pulitzer Prize final ...

Selected works

;Stage * ''Fat Tuesday'', Opera (1956) * ''Miss Emily Adam'',

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

Musical (1960) * ''Nowhere to Go But Up!'',

Musical (1962); book and lyrics by

James Lipton Louis James Lipton (September 19, 1926 – March 2, 2020) was an American writer, actor, talk show host, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He was the executive producer, writer, and host of ...

;Orchestral * ''Diversion'' (1972) * ''Dance Suite'' for string orchestra ;Band * ''Game of Dance'' (1956) * ''Paradigm'', Jazz Adventure in Sonata Allegro Form (1969) * ''Suite of Miniatures'' (1977) ;Chamber music * ''10 Duets for Treble Instruments'' (1971) * ''Introduction and Scherzo: Blues and Dance'' for viola and piano (1974) * ''Suite for Winds'' for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn (1975) * ''Dialogue'' for cello and piano (1980) ;Piano * Sonata (1941) * ''Duo concertante'' for 2 pianos (1942) * ''9 Folk Song Preludes'' (1972) * ''12 Easy Blues'' (1974) * ''4 Blues for Lefty'' (1976) * ''Five for Four'' for piano 4-hands (1977) * ''Jazzettes'', 17 Pieces in Classic Jazz Style (1988) ;Choral * ''Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel'' for mixed chorus a cappella (1955) * ''Without Words'', Suite for mixed chorus a cappella (1963) * ''The Mad Lover'', 5 Sad and Humorous Songs in Jazz Rock for mixed chorus a cappella (1970); words by Alexander Brome * ''Add a Riff'' for mixed chorus with optional accompaniment (1974) * ''Two Letters from Lincoln'' for mixed chorus and piano (1974) * ''Two Letters from Jefferson'' for mixed chorus and piano (1975) * ''Antidisestablishmentarianism'' for mixed chorus a cappella (1975) * ''Some Guides to Dining according to George Washington'' for mixed chorus and piano (1978) * ''Don't Ask Me'' and ''I Had a Little Pup'', 2 Traditional American Rhymes for two-part chorus of young voices and piano (1979) * ''Father William'' for two-part chorus of young voices with piano accompaniment (1979); words by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

* ''Daniel'', Spiritual Paraphrase for mixed chorus and piano (1981) * ''The Bop Fugue'' for two-part chorus with keyboard accompaniment (1981) * ''The Cuckoo Bird'' for two-part chorus and piano (1982) * ''Passacaglia in Blue'', Theme and 14 Variations for mixed chorus and piano (1982) * ''Comparisons'' for two-part chorus and piano (1982) * ''Me and Animals'' for two-part chorus and piano (1982) * ''Swingin' in Five'' for two-part mixed chorus and piano (1984) * ''Swingin' with Solfège'' for two-part mixed chorus and piano (1984) * ''Latin Rock'' for three-part chorus and piano (1985) ;Educational * ''A New Approach to Sight Singing'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1960) * ''Improvisation through Keyboard Harmony'' (

Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was a major American publishing#Textbook_publishing, educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth cen ...

, 1975)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berkowitz, Sol 1922 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American composers Jewish American classical composers American musical theatre composers American male musical theatre composers American music educators Queens College, City University of New York faculty Queens College, City University of New York alumni Columbia University alumni People from Warren, Ohio 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews